The News In Shorts

How the news would look if everyone stopped waffling and told the truth.

Friday, 25 May 2012

Nod And A Wink Politics.

Adam Smith, appearing at the Leveson Enquiry, has given us all an insight into how political decisions are reached in this country. Essentially its all done on a nod and a wink. The story of how Mr.Smith ended up before the enquiry is illuminating to say the least. The government originally appointed Vince Cable to oversee Murdoch's bid to get his hands on the rest of BSkyB but it soon became apparent that Vince wasn't too sympathetic and Rupert Murdoch was not pleased. Enter two young female journalists who cajole Vince into admitting on tape that he did not approve of Murdoch and that he had "declared war" on him. Revealed as being "partisan" poor old Vince was forced to resign. Enter Jeremy Hunt, who had been lobbying David Cameron for months to allow the bid to go forward, and who was now appointed by that same David Cameron to act as an "impartial" judge to replace Vince Cable. There then follows a series of emails between News International and someone in the government who signed the emails "JH." These make it abundantly clear that NI and the Cameron government are in cahoots to get the deal through no matter what the objections against it. When this is revealed Jeremy Hunt denies all knowledge and tells us all that his advisor, Adam Smith, is the guilty party and that he was acting without Hunt's knowledge or permission. So now we have Adam Smith giving evidence to the Leveson Enquiry telling us that he often used the initials "JH" for no particular reason and often appearing to not know his own emails too well. One thing is abundantly plain, however, and that is the whole process was both fishy and, at the same time, that the realtionship between the Cameron government and Murdoch was far too cosy to be labelled "impartial." One of the most important decisions for this country in terms of the future of the media was effectively being progressed on a nod and a wink, something that this government does in far too many spheres touching on our national ineterests. Treachery is not too strong a word.